Gene Simmons Labels Prince’s Death As ‘Pathetic’

Gene Simmons made it a point to take the moral high ground on Prince's death.

Gene Simmons, of K.I.S.S. fame, made headlines a month or so ago for his comments about N.W.A. being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

“In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, Simmons went off on the entire genre. “I am looking forward to the death of rap,” he said. “I’m looking forward to music coming back to lyrics and melody, instead of just talking. A song, as far as I’m concerned, is by definition lyric and melody … or just melody.”

As one can imagine, those comments weren’t very well received. None of that seemed to bother Simmons, whose return to the forefront includes his comments on Prince’s death.

“His drugs killed him. What do you think, he died from a cold?” He added Prince was a huge talent who “was heads, hands and feet above all the rest of them. I thought he left[Michael] Jackson in the dust.” Still, Simmons criticized the late legend. “How pathetic that he killed himself. Don’t kid yourself, that’s what he did. Slowly, I’ll grant you…but that’s what drugs and alcohol is: a slow death.” Simmons continued by telling the interviewer, “I’ve never been high or drunk in my life.”

One can imagine those comments won’t go over well with the rest of the music community. As of now, the cause of Prince’s death is unknown although Percocet was said to have been found in his system. The DEA has recently joined the investigation into Prince’s death as well.